Music Video Imitation

A Very Loose Interpretation

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That's what they say. So what better way to pay homage to our favorite musicians, than to imitate their music videos. That was the mission, should we choose to accept it, and indeed we did.

First off, when I say "we," I'm usually referring to Miranda and myself due to the fact that she's my best buddy and we make a good team. Our skills and capabilities complement each other's and together we have everything we need, at least most everything. The challenge that came with this project lies not in lack of a certain skill, however, but in the shear abundance of music that we each listen to. We spent a solid day just trying to figure out a video to imitate and we ended up with "Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU) and "Stay The Night" by Zedd feat. Hayley Williams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gyZ35074k). We also picked a different song to set our imitation to, "Old Scars/ Future Hearts" by All Time Low (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnoJ_0lk_5w). With our resources decided, we could now begin planning.

Step 1: Watch the reference videos. Memorize the song. Choose elements you definitely wish to incorporate into the final product.

Step 2: Plan out the video. Making the shot list fell into Miranda's hands, while editing down the song fell into mine, which I was excited about (music editing is one of my favorite things!).

Step 3: Film the video. This is where we hit a few road blocks. First came the wonderful bipolar weather of Kansas that kept us from checking out equipment on the only day Miranda and I could've both filmed, only to completely stop as soon as we got home. That was fun. So then we ran into the issue of I now had to film everything by myself, and I have little confidence in my camera abilities, at least when there's no one else there to help me figure things out. But I did it anyways and two days of filming later, we had all we needed. 

"Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance

Step 4: Edit the video. Miranda took on that task, as she usually does, for I am not a video editing person, rather a music editing person, as I've mentioned before (which I did have to employ during editing due to a tight deadline, and a little less footage than we planned for). But editing is where we greatly imitated the video: split screens and quick edits, etc. 

Our Video

Step 5: Share your video. Sharing in terms of this class consist of putting it on a server and then projecting it in the front of the room for everybody to watch, as well as posting it on Youtube (here's the link for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEaQGjTiB8). 

Well, there's our process from start to finish. Now onto the part where I say all the things I wish we would've done instead of what we actually did. Initiate new list!

1. Our video increasingly became a looser and looser interpretation of our reference videos, and by the end, if we hadn't stated our inspiration, no one probably would've know we had any. Also, we started off with two reference videos, and in the final product, the second wasn't present at all.

2. Thing two I would change is the fact that we have an actress, emphasis on the tress, singing a song sung by a man. I didn't notice it until the end, but now it's all I notice.

3. If I could film it again, I'd try to get wider angles of the car driving, but that was just a lack of resources on our part. It would've been possible if we had had another car to follow Sarah's with someone else driving so I could move around in the car and film, but since it was just me, I figured it wouldn't be wise for me to try to drive and film at the same time. Safety first!

Well that's about it. It's not a terrible video. I actually quite like how it turned out, especially compared to some of our other projects. So you should check it out and let me know what you think!

Here's the link for our final product again, in case you missed it in Step 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEaQGjTiB8

In The Turn

Directed by Erica Tremblay

On 18 April 2015, I had the great opportunity to go to KC Film Fest (kcfilmfest.org) with my roller derby league (kcrollerwarriors.com) to hand out flyers and answer questions about the sport in support of a documentary that was playing called In The Turn (intheturn.com). And let me just say: IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BLOODY AMAZING! In The Turn is a film about a ten year old transgender girl named Crystal and the international queer collective of roller derby players known as the Vagine Regime that strives to let every LGBTQ person know that there is a sport for them where they will not be questioned or judged for who they are. The film criss-crosses the US, following the stories of several queer derby girls and guys as well as hiking it up to Canada for Crystal's story. I don't want to give away too much, a) because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who's yet to see it, and b) because I can in no way do this film justice with just words, it is an experience that you need to witness to fully appreciate. So I will leave you with that. Look up In The Turn, and it should (hopefully) be available for purchase in Fall 2015. 

North By Northwest

A Review of a Movie I Admittedly Didn't Understand Very Well

Recently, we watched the film North By Northwest in film class, and let me just say, the punch sound effects in 1959 were quite unrealistic, and frankly, they were so bad it was comical. Now on to something a little more important than complaining about bad foley; the plot, which I will admit I had to look up on IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/?ref_=nv_sr_1) to fully understand. Turns out it's about a guy who becomes a victim of mistaken identity, causing foreign spies to plot his murder, and accusing him when he tries to crack the case. Insert complicated love interest who is more than she appears to be and end it with a chase scene across the faces of Mount Rushmore and you have the 1959 masterpiece that is North By Northwest. 

Now there is a set of questions that I need to answer, but I'll be honest, I don't even understand what the questions are asking. So I'm going to just write and hopefully you learn a little something about this film.

One of my new favorite things to do when I watch movies is to try to find where green screens are/start/stop. It's not the most fun hobby, but I find great satisfaction in being able to find the line where green screen meets floor. It's definitely less fun however in older movies, such as North By Northwest, because the green screen capabilities back then were not as precise as they are now (though I was surprised how easy it was to find the line in Mockingjay Part I) it was obvious what was real and what wasn't. Not to mention that the footage/graphics used for them were highly unrealistic, such as the entire Mount Rushmore final chase sequence. Alright, I need to stop the green screen talk and get back on track. 

Something I've been really trying to learn about/ focus on when watching films is the sound, due to the fact that I was totally clueless in my time spent in the Sound Department for As Though Lost, our class short film (post about that experience to come later). The few times there was music playing in the background, it really fit the scene, and the foley sounds they used (at least most of them, minus the punches) were fairly realistic, for the time period at least. However, there was fault in some elements of the sound for this film such as the sudden, noticeable volume drops of music when dialogue came up instead of gradual decreases and the occasional scene completely lacking any foley, making it seem flat and out of place. However, I must always take into account the technology that was available in the 1950s, and in regards to that, this movie is fairly impressive.

The film did very well in it's portrayal of the time period, in the midst of the Cold War with threat of Communists and spies around every corner. The infiltration of foreign threats into the US government as it actually happened, or at least as it was expected to be true made the film all the more realistic and probably helped fill the theatres when it was first released.

All in all, the movie was fairly decent and I'm glad we watched it.